


Baby Bat

by The_Devil_In_The_Details_666



Series: Small Songbirds [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Bruce Wayne is very confused, But my writing goblin won't shut up and I intend to make that everyone else's problem, Canon? What's A Canon?, Fluff, Gen, I shouldn't be starting another WIP, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:42:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28211832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Devil_In_The_Details_666/pseuds/The_Devil_In_The_Details_666
Summary: Bruce really needs to stop pissing off magic users.(Or: Bruce is 12 again and, understandably, very confused as to why there are a bunch of strange people in his house.)
Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Series: Small Songbirds [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756237
Comments: 6
Kudos: 196





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> *Squints at my writing goblin* One day. One day, you will allow me to finish all of my WIPs before starting another, you little shit.
> 
> Yeah, probably not. Anyway, My Tumblr is The-Devil-In-The-Details-666 if anyone wants to come say hello! I love hearing from y'all.

Jason woke up to screaming. While not overly strange, considering the fact that he was in a house full of vigilantes and nightmares were understandable and expected, particularly after a fight like that night’s, the fact that it was a _child’s_ scream drove Jason to get out of bed, kissing Tim’s forehead and tucking the blankets tighter around Tim when he grumbled in his sleep. Once Tim settled, Jason pulled on some sweatpants before slipping out of the room and very nearly crashing straight into Alfred, who looked somewhat alarmed. Which, for Alfred, was practically a panic attack. Jason looked at Alfred, then asked, “Any idea who’s screaming?”

Alfred looked unsettled, then answered, “I dare say that sounded like Master Bruce when he was a lad.”

Jason groaned, unable to help it, and stated, “Then you should probably be the one to enter first and check on him.”

Alfred nodded and they made their way to Bruce’s room. Alfred rapped on the door, his usual three quick taps, and called, “Master Bruce, are you-”

He was cut off by the door swinging open to reveal a Bruce who couldn’t have been older than 13, dressed in Adult-Bruce’s silk pajamas that hung off of him like a dress and with tears streaming down his cheeks. He was practically hyperventilating as he stared up at Alfred and Alfred carefully crouched down, asking, “What happened, Master Bruce?”

Bruce took a deep, shuddering breath, and answered, “I don’t- I don’t know. I had a nightmare and when I woke up, I was- I was dressed in these and I-”

He cut off with a choked sob and Alfred closed his eyes, looking distinctly pained as he answered, “I see, Master Bruce. What is the last thing you recall before going to sleep?”

Alfred then glanced up at Jason, who nodded and crept silently back to his room, grabbing his cell phone and sending a text to Zatanna to call him when she saw it. Then he crept back to where Alfred was escorting Bruce back to bed and promising him they would figure things out in the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Jason woke up to his phone ringing. He grabbed it, answering, “Jason speaking.”  
  


Zatanna’s cheery voice replied, “I saw your text. What’s up?”

Jason blinked, trying to work through the sleep still clinging to him, then remembered why he had texted her and answered, “B woke up last night as a kid. Doesn’t remember anything. Was wondering if you knew anything or could come by and help us out?”

There was a beat of silence, then Zatanna answered, “Morgaine le Fey. She was involved in the League fight last night and landed the spell she cast. It was a slow-acting one and I _warned_ B that this would happen, but he must not have listened. It’ll wear off on its own, in a week or so.”

She hung up and Jason sighed, then dragged himself out of bed with a few choice words.


	2. Chapter 2

Bruce woke up to the sound of the sound of… something. He wasn’t sure what, as it stopped seemingly as soon as he was awake, but he knew that _something_ had to have woken him up. He was in the master bedroom, which wasn’t anything alarming, as he had started sleeping there a few months prior, but, as he looked around, Bruce couldn’t help but notice that the walls were littered with framed photos that he didn’t remember being there when he went to bed. In addition to the photos on the walls, the bedside table had gained a set of two more framed photos, a pair of reading glasses, and a cell phone overnight. There was also a small bowl with a ring and a watch in it. Sitting up slowly, he leaned over to look at the photos on his bedside table curiously. One looked like a picture of a wedding, with two men, both with black hair and blue eyes, standing at the altar. One of the men looked eerily like Bruce’s dad or even an older version of Bruce himself and Bruce stared at it for a long time before pulling his eyes away to look at the second new picture. It was of a group of people, including the two men from the wedding photo, gathered at a table around a kid who looked alarmingly like Bruce. It appeared to be a birthday celebration, based on the decorations and the cake in front of the kid, and Bruce picked up the photo, looking at it closer. Most of the people in the photo had black hair and blue eyes, though there were a handful who didn’t, and they were all smiling. One of the men in the photo, with a white streak in his black hair, was giving the man who looked like an older version of Bruce bunny ears, and the only blonde in the photo, a woman in her early twenties, was giving the kid in the middle bunny ears. Bruce recognized the room they were in as the dining room in the Manor and his eyes were once again drawn to the man who looked like him as he wondered if he was going crazy. He was then jerked out of his thoughts by a knock at his bedroom door and the thankfully-familiar voice of Alfred calling, “Master Bruce, are you awake?”

Bruce startled, then clambered out of the bed, walking over and opening the door. Alfred arched an eyebrow and Bruce belatedly realized that he was still holding the photo he had been looking at. There was a beat of silence, then Bruce held up the photo and asked, “Who are these people, Alfred? And what’s going on?”

Alfred carefully took the photo, looking conflicted, and answered, “I suggest you take a seat while I explain, Master Bruce.”

Bruce shifted, staring up at Alfred, but moved to sit at the foot of the bed as Alfred stated, “This will likely sound unbelievable, but I assure you, every word of it is true. The people in this photo are you and your family.”

Bruce started to protest that he had no idea who any of these people were, but Alfred held up a hand to stop him, continuing, “You, as an adult, are the superhero known as ‘Batman’ and are a member of the group known as the Justice League. While you were responding to an attack on civilians last night, a magic user cast a spell that caused you to regress in age.”

Bruce blinked, mentally dissecting that for a moment before finally asking, “So… So I’m a hero?”

“Indubitably, sir.”

Bruce looked at the framed photo Alfred was holding and asked, “And I have a family? Like… Like, a big family?”

Alfred laughed softly and answered, “Indeed, Master Bruce. One could even argue enormous.”

Bruce turned the thought over in his mind, then looked up at Alfred and requested, “Can I meet them? Do they- Do they know I’m a hero?”  
  


Alfred set the photo back in its original spot on the bedside table, answering, “Indeed they do, Master Bruce. Give me one moment to get you some clothes that will fit you and I shall take you downstairs to meet them.”

Bruce nodded and Alfred slipped out of the room, returning a few minutes later with a pair of jeans and a black turtleneck sweater. Alfred stepped out of the room while Bruce changed and, once he was dressed, he stepped out to join Alfred. Alfred led him down to the dining room and, as they drew closer, the sound of chatter reached him. Then they entered the dining room and Bruce found himself staring at a small town’s worth of people gathered around the dining room table. Eight of the eleven people at the table had black hair and Bruce wondered absently how many of them were actually related to him by blood as Alfred began, “Your family, Master Bruce.”

One of the men, who Bruce recognized from the photo, looked up from his bowl of cereal and promptly choked, curling in on himself as he coughed and wheezed. One of the other men from the photo, the one with the white streak in his hair, leaned around a red-haired woman to thump the man on the back as he scoffed, “You’re supposed to eat your cereal, Dickiebird, not inhale it.”

The coughing man flipped the other one off and finally managed to stop coughing long enough to answer, “Shut up, Little Wing.”

A third man from the photo, the small skinny one with dark bags under his eyes, rolled his eyes and stated, “You’re both idiots.”

Alfred cleared his throat, giving the group a pointed look, and the one who had choked gave a wave, greeting, “Hi! I’m Dick Grayson, your first kid!”

The redhead waved as well, not looking up from her laptop, and added, “Barbara Gordon, Dick’s fiancée.”

Bruce awkwardly waved back and the guy with the white streak introduced, “Jason Todd. It’s… _complicated._ ”

The skinny man next to Jason rolled his eyes again and introduced, “Tim Drake, your third kid. Jason is my husband.”

The girl beside Tim waved, then introduced, “Cass Cain. Only daughter.”

Tim gave a cough that sounded distinctly like “Favorite child” and Cass swatted his arm gently as the blonde girl beside Cass introduced, “I’m Stephanie Brown. I’m not _technically_ one of yours, but I’ve dated two of your children thus far and don’t have any other father figure in my life, so you’ve pretty much unofficially adopted me.”

Bruce nodded, wondering which two of his children she had dated, and the boy next to her, another with black hair and blue eyes who looked eerily like one of the men from the wedding photo, stated, “I’m Conner Kent. I’m… I think, technically, I would either be your stepson or your brother-in-law. I dunno, man, cloning is weird.”

Bruce opened his mouth to ask, but the boy next to Conner piped up, introducing, “Jon Kent. I’m your stepson.”

The man beside him was the one from the wedding photo and he awkwardly shifted in his seat, then introduced, “I’m Clark Kent. I’m, uh, your husband.”

Bruce stared at him, reeling at the fact that _he had a husband_ , and the next one in line, a black boy in a yellow sweatshirt, greeted, “I’m Duke Thomas, your sixth official kid.”

Bruce nodded and the final boy, the one from the middle of the group in the photo, stated, “Damian Wayne.”

Bruce noted the fact that Damian was the only one who shared his last name and wondered why that was, then answered, “It’s… Nice to meet you?”

Jason snorted and leaned back in his chair, commenting, “Pretty sure your older self would disagree.”

Cass leaned around Tim to smack Jason’s shoulder while Dick leaned around Barbara to do the same, scolding, “Just because we cause him a significant number of headaches doesn’t mean he doesn’t love us.”

Bruce shifted awkwardly, not understanding why the table burst into laughter at that, and Duke gave him a sympathetic look, explaining, “Side effect of adopting a collection of various superheroes is that all of us are adrenaline junkies who get bored easily and cause chaos for the fun of it. Older-you gets stuck putting up with our collective nonsense a lot.”

Bruce shifted, then asked, “Were you guys already superheroes when I adopted you?”

Duke looked thoughtful, then answered, “Eh, depends. Dick and Jason both became Robin after being adopted, but _technically speaking_ , Tim was Robin for… a year, I think, before he was adopted officially. Though he was unofficially adopted like, the day he came to you and announced that he knew you were Batman. Same with Steph and Barbara, though neither are officially adopted. Cass and I both became heroes after being adopted and Damian still hasn’t been adopted, so…”

Damian looked offended and replied, “I am Father’s blood son, Thomas.”

Duke raised an eyebrow, looking amused, and answered, “Did I say you weren’t? All I said was that you haven’t been adopted. And you probably never will be.”

Damian scowled and Dick laughed brightly, reaching across the table to ruffled Damian’s hair and teasing, “If you really want to be adopted by someone, I’m sure Clark would be happy to adopt you.”

Clark looked slightly terrified at the prospect, but answered, “I mean, if that’s something that you’re genuinely interested in, I’m certainly willing, but only if-”

Damian scrunched his face in the same way that Bruce did and answered, “I shall consider it.”


End file.
